15 Years of Anniversary Road Trips | 5 States, 2 Countries

Five years before I started HeidiTown, Ryan and I got married in in Golden, Colorado in May 2002. After honeymooning in England, we made a pact to spend each anniversary in a different state. That lasted a number of years until HeidiTown was in full swing and we were traveling nearly exclusively in Colorado.

14 Anniversary Trips. Arches National Park, Moab, Utah. HeidiTown.com
Corona Arch in Moab, Utah.

Now that HeidiTown has annexed six new states, I’m excited to start exploring the states surrounding Colorado again once again.

Since we’ve been taking a road trip on every anniversary for the last 14 years, I thought I’d share with you the 14 places we’ve visited in nearly 15 years of marriage.

On our first anniversary in 2003, we traveled to a small bed and breakfast at the foot of the Snowy Range near Centennial, Wyoming. We hiked on their expansive alpaca ranch, soaked in the hot tub and went on a horseback ride at a nearby ranch.

Unfortunately that bed and breakfast no longers exists, but this anniversary was a true getaway and one reason I think we both still associate trips to Wyoming with serenity.

In 2004, on our second anniversary, we went to Santa Fe, New Mexico, a city we both love and had previously visited. In fact, we visited Santa Fe a number of times before HeidiTown was established.

14 Anniversary Trips. Dreamcatcher B&B, Moab, Utah. HeidiTown.com
Dream Keeper Inn, Moab, Utah

We were off to Moab, Utah for anniversary number three in 2005. This was our second trip to Moab as we had stayed there when moving from Bellingham, Washington to Denver in 2000. This time we booked two nights at Dream Keeper Inn. This place will always hold a special place in my heart due to the fact that their backyard hammock has been my “happy place” ever since our visit.

In 2006, we decided on a Colorado destination. We booked a roundtrip ticket to Glenwood Springs on Amtrak and stayed in Hotel Colorado, a place we’d also stayed on a previous trip to Colorado in 1999. It remains one of our favorite hotels in the United States. It was a lovely, sunny trip that went a long way in cementing our love of Glenwood Springs.

14 Anniversary Trips. Amtrack to Glenwood Springs, Colorado. HeidiTown.com
Riding the Amtrak from Glenwood Springs to Union Station in Denver, Colorado.

The next year we went big. In fact, we went to Mexico twice in eight months over 2006 and 2007; first for my 30th birthday in October to Puerto Vallarta, and then to Riviera Maya for our fifth wedding anniversary. We traveled only with the packs on our backs and took colectivos everywhere we went – it was epic. We just went back for my 40th birthday and retraced our steps on our favorite island in Mexico, Cozumel.

14 Anniversary Trips, Cozumel 2007. HeidiTown.com
Sweatin’ it at the ruins in Tulum in 2007.

In 2008, we went back to Wyoming. This time our destination was Saratoga, Wyoming where we stayed at the Saratoga Resort & Spa and discovered the World’s Best Eggs Benedict at Lollypops. We golfed, had a couples massage and soaked. It was delightful. I still remember reading away an evening in front of the large outdoor fireplace on the lodge’s covered patio.

14 Anniversary Trips, golf at Saratgoa Resort, Wyoming. HeidiTown.com
Golfing in Saratoga, Wyoming.

Anniversary number seven was spent in Southwest Colorado where we toured Mesa Verde National Park and stayed in the charming town of Dolores. It was 2009, and we’ve always planned to go back to this beautiful pocket of Colorado, but still haven’t.

14 Anniversary Trips, Mese Verde National Park. HeidiTown.com
Mesa Verde National Park

In 2010, we headed out of state again, to a state I’m excited to start covering as HeidiTown. South Dakota is one of the most gorgeous and friendly places I’ve encountered.

We covered so much ground and did so much during this three night stay in South Dakota that I can’t even begin to tell you all about it here. We loved Deadwood, thought Custer State Park in May rivaled Yellowstone, except there aren’t any geysers, and were blown away by the scenery in South Dakota’s Black Hills.

14 Anniversary Trip. Custer State Park in South Dakota. HeidiTown.com
A traffic jam in Custer State Park.

We made our way to Mt. Princeton Hot Springs in Nathrop, Colorado in 2011 to celebrate our ninth year of marriage. This was a super laid back trip punctuated by an excursion to the ghost town of St. Elmo, just up the road from Mt. Princeton Hot Springs. We’ve been back twice, so yes, we like this Colorado hot springs destination a lot.

14 Anniversary Trips, Mt. Princeton Hot Springs, Colorado. HeidiTown.com
Mt. Princeton Hot Springs

We stayed at the Brown Palace in Denver for our 10th anniversary, which was appropriate because this is where we stayed after our wedding day and before we flew to England for our honeymoon. We did a package here that included a night’s stay and tickets to the show at the Denver Art Museum, which was Yves St. Laurent. I wrote about the weekend here.

We went back to Glenwood Springs for our 11th anniversary because we’d been invited to the 125th anniversary of Glenwood Hot Springs Pool. By 2013, HeidiTown was in full swing, and so I wrote about this excursion here too. We can’t get enough of Glenwood Springs. After spending two anniversaries there, as well as other stays, it will always be a special place for us.

Glenwood Springs Hot Springs Pool in May 2015. HeidiTown.com
Glenwood Hot Springs Pool

Our 12th anniversary was in Denver. We had season tickets to the Colorado Symphony in 2014, and so we combined an outing to the symphony with a stay at the Curtis Hotel and steak at Morton’s Steakhouse. Again, this is an anniversary trip I wrote about here.

In 2015, our anniversary and HeidiTown Fest in Ouray, Colorado were in the same week, so we made that trip our annual anniversary getaway.

14 Anniversary Trips, HeidiTown Fest in Ouray, 2015. HeidiTown.com
HeidiTown Fest 2015, celebrating with all the attendees.

Last year’s anniversary, number 14, was especially memorable. We decided to do an off-the-grid getaway at Dinosaur National Monument in Northwest Colorado with our old dog Xena. We spent two nights camping in Echo Park and one night in nearby Rangely. I wrote a series of articles about this trip, including a popular piece on Rangely, Colorado.

Easy hiking around Echo Park, Dinosaur National Monument. On the trail to the confluence. HeidiTown.com
Dinosaur National Monument, one of the most beautiful and remote spots in Colorado.

In May, we’ll be celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary. I’m scheduled to give a presentation on tourism advocacy in La Junta, Colorado at the SOCO Tourism Summit on the day of our anniversary. We plan to explore the La Junta area and from there we might continue the road trip for a couple of days. Not sure if we’ll head into New Mexico or stay in Colorado, but you can be sure that I’ll write about it here.

If you have any questions about any of these destinations, please feel free to ask in the comment section below. I love helping people trip plan.

3 Comments


  1. We are planning on visiting Mt Rushmore over Memorial Weekend. What are some other places to visit between north Denver & there that might interest Masters 6 & 8 and their parental chauffeurs?

    Reply

    1. Hi Katie,

      I’m so sorry that I missed seeing this comment sooner. I’ve only driven that route once, so I do not consider myself to be an expert on it. However, I’d definitely recommend Custer State Park, especially at that time of year. There will be baby buffalo! And we found the animals to be very active and about in the spring. We went in May too.

      I grew up going to Yellowstone every summer and as far as the animals go, I thought Custer State Park rivaled Yellowstone.

      Have fun and thank you for stopping by HeidiTown.

      Reply

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